Nigeria loses another NAF Pilot, Air Commodore Udenyi

Nigeria loses another NAF Pilot, Air Commodore Udenyi

Barely two years after a Pilot Instructor with the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Group Captain Adanu Gabriel Ochayi was buried, another best Pilot with the Nigerian military, Air Commodore Emmanuel Udenyi is dead.

Late Ochayi, a native of Idoma in Benue state, had died in an air beetle in Kaduna, August 2017, while waiting for his Air Commodore promotion.

Since his burial September 6, 2017, neither the NAF nor the military authority had been able to come clear on the remote cause of his death.

In a similar vein, the NAF has not issued official statement on the real cause of death of the Idoma-born Air Commodore Udenyi, who is said to be awaiting his Air Vice Marshall promotion, any moment from now.

“Air Commodore Udenyi died in Lagos yesterday, May 4, 2019, but the cause of death is yet unknown, there was no plane crash neither was he ill”, a source close to the family hinted our reporter.

Since the news was broken to the family in Benue, Sunday morning, the family house located at Banner of Grace street, off David Mark bye-pass, High level, Makurdi, had been a beehive of mourners and sympathisers.

Attempts by our reporter to speak with the parents of the deceased proved abortive as their uncontrollable cries could not allow them grant any meaningful audience.

The wife and children of late Udenyi were still in Lagos, where they had lived with their bread winner.

Air Commodore Udenyi, until his death, was the Commander of 301 Heavy Airlift Group, Logistics Command, Ikeja Lagos.

He was the number one pilot of NAF C-130, the biggest cargo aircraft in the Nigeria’s military inventory of airplane.

Udenyi was promoted to the rank of Air Commodore in 2015, alongside other fine officers.

In 2016, he was sent to Washington DC, as Nigeria’s Defence Attaché.

A native of Agila, Ado local government of Benue state, Air Commodore Udenyi is survived by wife, children and parents.